I was so thrilled to join the Golden Retriever Club of Columbus for a dock diving demonstration at their monthly meeting. This was an awesome night for a dog lover like me. There are dock diving competitions on YouTube that I've watched, and I'd always hoped to see one someday. When the chance popped up to see it in person, of course I had to be there!

It was so interesting to learn about techniques to getting a dog ready for dock diving. The most important thing? Don't toss your dog off the dock into the lake! You don't want him or her to be afraid of diving into water. We saw a number of dogs get in on the action during the demonstration. I got the chance for some mid-air action shots like this one.

And of course not every throw was going to be a success. This dog has the funniest expression on his face when he looks back and sees he leaped farther than the toy was tossed!

Sometimes the pups got overexcited and dropped the toy and had to go back in to retrieve it. It was so hot out, that an extra swim through the water probably felt great. It looked pretty tempting to me!

What a beautiful girl watching her doggie friends!

Before each meeting, the club has a standing challenge called The Order of the Egg. There are various points awarded for how far a dog goes to retrieve a regular chicken egg, picks it up in his mouth, and then brings it back to the starting point. The ideal for these golden retrievers is to have what is called a "soft mouth" so they can retrieve game that their owners have hunted without further damaging it.

I see the egg in this one's mouth!

I just like this shot because the dog's profile mirrors the dog on the sign.